Have you ever wondered what electricians carry in their tool bag I’m going to show
you what I carry on a day-to-day basis and the essential tools that every electrician needs
just starting with the front of the bag
because there's many compartments on here the bigger pockets I try and keep all my similar
tools all mixed up together with the bigger pockets at the back here I have my wire strippers
these are a very generic set I get through maybe a couple of pairs a year because
I drop them off my ladders for starters or they just fail because they get so much use
but these are great I always come back and buy more of these
my heavy-duty pliers are my big crimped ones
these are seeing some action as you can see just for the colour of them and they're quite old
these are my old snips but I keep them because they're handy they've had a few chips taken out
of them over the years so I don't mind using them for things that I’m not sure about or if
I’ve got a cup so cut through something that's a little bit on the tough side because these are
already knackered doesn't matter if I knacker them anymore on the other side I’ve got my proper snips
these are my wire snips now these things are great they'll cut anything up to six mil quite easily
um they will do 10 mil but you have to do it in chunks but these also are spring
loaded so if you're doing repetitive work by changing the consumer unit for example
just flip the spring over and it automatically springs back open for you very useful tool to have
my big wire snips these for a much bigger cable they'll go straight through 10 mil for example
uh very good for the meter cables and by stripping the insulation on 16 or 25 mil
trusted utility knife blade otherwise known as a Stanley blade very useful thing to have about
everything in this bag is pretty much very useful I wouldn't be carrying it in the centre pocket
here the marksman if you haven't come across these I recommend you go out and look for them
it's basically a chalk loaded air canister if you've got holes that you can't reach with a
pencil or a pen or even if you can you literally turn it around push it in it shoots a little dot
of green chalk out you take off your unit that you're doing and the holes will there mark for you
tiny level fantastic for sockets black boxes
super glue just in
case pack of fuses just because quite often you come across
something that's got a 13-amp fuse in it that shouldn't have a 13-amp using it
the multi-key this one is great because it has the gas and electricity boxes on it uh the keys
for them obviously, we need to check the meters if you need to turn off the main isolator switch
check what the earthing supply is
along the bottom row here
is my multi-tool screwdriver it's various different attachments all in the back
so I can just grab whatever I need to drop it in the end sometimes very useful because I can just
put that one screwdriver in my belt, and I’ve got all the tools I need with it it's also magnetic
every electrician needs their bodge it screwdriver I’ve had this for so many years I can't remember
as you can see the ends been chewed off because I’ve been using it for things that a screwdriver
shouldn't be used for but that's why I have it in my bag it's very old it's knackered
sometimes it gets used as a chisel it's just very useful handy to have
my spare volt stick I’ve always got one of these in my pocket um but on the odd
occasion I leave it at home, or I break it or it's in the van or goes missing because
I’m very things do fall out your pocket always got the spare one in my tool bag when I need it
long nose pliers and probably my most used setup pliers are my bent nose ones
very very handy for when you need that small child's finger
for example or there's hard to reach places that you just can't get to
I have two sets of spanners
very dinky pair and just a normal set the dinky one doesn't come out very often but is very useful
for those times where well you need it really, it's very narrow which is good for this one
this one's great because it's got a 10mm spanner slot
nut slot sorry in the back and it goes up to about 20 mil so good for most most applications
a range of punches now I use these for various different things
they've all seen better days as you can see because they get used a lot you can see the handle
snapped off of this one, this is about 5mm diameter so if I need to push up into a ceiling just to put
a wall plug it saves me having to get my drill out to do it the others this is what I call my pokey
very very thin if I’m doing say for example down lights in the ceiling and I’d need to do
test holes same with dry lining walls for double sockets etc that's what I use great for finding
studs and if you hit a stud I’ve only got a tiny hole that I need to patch up with some filler
larger punches in today's fuse boxes it will be a metal having knockouts on them
very very useful for punching them out and last but not least
just a cheap pair of scissors again for fuse boxes very handy for cutting labels
moving on to the side pockets
the trusty tape measure every electrician needs one of these
more so I always carry a dust mask you don't know when you're going to need it
but it's always good to have it in your bag because if you end up in a rough space just
to check something out you don't want the fiberglass getting into your lungs
or if you've got to get into a crawl space and you suddenly discover that it's very dusty as most of
them are um it's just a very good safe thing to have in your bag at all times whether you have
one of these when we have one of the normal paper ones I definitely recommend having one
and my dinky little laser measure great for measuring rooms very quickly much quicker than
a tape measure also you haven't got the hindrance of skirting boards because you can go water wall
on the other pocket on the other side this is my miscellaneous pocket as you see I’ve had
to patch it up because I tore it but in here I have my very ancient but very useful head torch
I have a range of choc blocks just spare bits of cable I have my very basic 13 amp plug tester
what I generally use this for is to tell me whether a socket is live or not
especially in the situation where you're in a customer's house and the fuse box isn't labelled
or it's just labelled sockets rather than sockets upstairs or downstairs etc
also just a few knick-knacks in here
a couple of rubber grommets a few old Wagos so if I need to test anything in a hurry
I can just connect the cables together continuities moving to the main pocket
now I might get lost in here because it's very deep and there's a lot of stuff in it
but I generally carry a bunch of connectors they'll usually vary on what's on offer to
be honest with you um some more permanent these are the ideal ones these are the Wagos
I don't really have a preference for which ones to use they're all great to be honest
now this is my screwdriver set every electrician needs a screwdriver set whether it's this one
which comes in a fold out pack or whether you've got individual ones this one for me is fantastic
because it's all got separate blades they're all in order size and type whether it's a torque or
a cross head or even a flat head and there's two handles with them so you don't always have to keep
interchanging the blades all the time it has a normal what I call the normal small handle
these are so ergonomically well designed as well there's another reason why I love them
and but it means if I’m climbing up steps or ladders or crawling around it means I haven't
got loads of big screwdrivers hanging in my pocket I can just take a few blades out which
I know I’m going to need and I can just sort them over clip them in also they could use the stubbies
or semi-stubbies because sometimes that's just too long to get into the area that you're trying
to get to but you can take the handle off and there you go you've just lost a good two inches
can make it easy to get in places also with the screwdriver set it's got a very handy
gear system where this one is solid but if you push the button in the back it will spin
and it will turn the screwdriver blade in here four times
for every rotation as opposed to when it's locked it'll just do the one these are fab
but for a second fix for example uh you can get around and put weak sockets and switches
on a lot quicker but I do recommend not using these on metal or shiny face sockets because
just spinning it just like that you can drop it but if you're spinning it you need two hands on it
which means you can't guide the blade and if it slips it will scratch the face plate
moving on to the next tools
we will need a hammer we all know what it's for nails etc and lifting fuel boards actually I
probably left more floorboards with this hammer than I do with smacking in nails
my trusty level everybody needs one of these, for obvious reasons
and along my level I have my in between level you saw my small one that's the longer one and
this is the in between one now this one's great it's got rubber rounds on it um because I do drop
it when I’m up on steps occasionally but more so it's got a magnetic base
when installing consumer units it's just great you just clip it on the bottom it stays stuck
where it is so you can move the box around as you need to to get it in the right position
and it's not getting in the way with anything within the fuse box so you can keep that clip
to it and you can mark your holes drilling where you need to with this staying out the way
my pad saw
cutting those boxes in dry liner or enlarging holes for down lights
one of the best tools and oddly enough well not oddly enough my wife bought me this
several years ago and I haven't stopped using it one of my favourite and easiest and best tools
level in the top or on the bottom depending which way after you've got it
bob's it's a box sizer uh you've got your double size here your single box here
invaluable piece of kit there are many different versions of this
some do folding some will do a one size box uh you can get singles on their own but this one
obviously is it's what it is it's a double and a single um sometimes can be a bit difficult if
you get something really in close to the wall or skirting for example but you can always get one
or two sides and then you can just flip it over or you can fill the rest in with you with your
metal rule which incidentally is up there
tiny hammer ever tried to get those cable clips in between joist faces
well that's what I use the bigger one can't quite get swinging sometimes
this one gives you that little bit of extra room getting a little extra hit
in a previous video you may have seen my swa cutters well
here they are both in my bag just floating around in the bottom but where I need to get to them
and along with those I carry a couple of short
adjustable spanners now these go very very large uh up to about 32
I think these go to 32 millimetres, but these are perfect for armoured cable glands
the usual PVC tape, earth, brown and a blue basically don't really need any more than that
um now you don't need any more than that
carrying on carrying a spare pack of bits now this is just a cheapy got off from a super stool um
and as you can tell I’m already missing a piece
uh but it's cheap and cheerful it can get me out of jail sometimes
occasionally you just need that odd size,
or you just need that one little tool that this can help me with
a square or really a carpenter's tool um but I do like to get my straight cuts
just a little bit of pride in your work on top of that I’ve got a couple of crimping tools
just a generic butt crimp tool use this for extending cables occasionally
not used so much these days not now that I’ve come across the ideal connectors
and this is for my ferrules if you're using flexible cable if you're wearing a caravan for
example or a shepherd's hut all of those things should be wide and flexible cable
and now it's recommended by bs7671
that you put a ferrule on the end of all of the flexible cables to stop any burs
related to the hammer because it quite often gets used at the same time
it's my baby crowbar great for lift ups floorboards
you can get that it's very sharp along the uh on the edge here so they can get in between narrower
floorboards just enough to give it a lever that can get the hammer crow underneath and just leave
it up it's also got a nail remover on the other end and leading to not at least last leading on
is my very cheap electrical tester now this is not calibrated it is cheap and cheerful
I only actually use it for testing well I’m not sure something if I’ve left my proper Kewtech tester
in the vat because they can have a bit big and bulky this one because it's fairly small uh it
will do the basics it'll do me a basic continuity it'll tell me if something's live or not
it's just a double check because sometimes the vault sticks they can pick up on static giving you
a false reading that something's live when it's not this will tell me whether it is live or not
so there we have it those are my basic tools that I carry in my electrical tool bag
do you carry anything different yourself it would be great to let me know I probably got
a few things there in fact I know for one tool that I’d love to get which I haven't got around
to yet it's a three and a half mm burrer for those metal back boxes because invariably as we all know
the screws do get stripped sometimes but what do you carry that I don't carry what have I got that
you think is a waste of time I’d love to hear from you in the comments and until the next time thanks
for watching and don't forget to subscribe and please give me a thumbs up because everyone helps